Why It Matters That 'Transparent' Won At The Golden Globes

The Golden Globes are the goofiest of Hollywood award shows. For some reason, they've taken on the patina of meaningfulness even though they are chosen by a small group of foreign press journalists and there are constant allegations that those journalists are being bribed by the studios. Maybe the reason they remain so popular is that celebrities are encouraged to drink during the ceremony so there's always the hope of some kind of drunken stumble.

But even if you give no credit to the Globes, they can still have an impact. The most important take away from Sunday's ceremony was that the Amazon streaming show Transparent won two big awards - for Best Series and Best Actor in the TV comedy/musical category.

Transparent is a show that never would have gotten made in the traditional network world. Jeffrey Tambor stars as Mort/Maura Pfefferman, the father of three grown children who has spent his entire life fighting his trans identity. In his 60s, he finally decides to come out to his three grown children who struggle to come to terms with this new reality.

The show not only deals frankly and openly with issues surrounding transgender, it deals with the spectrum of sexuality in a way that's never been discussed on TV before. Characters aren't just gay or straight. They exist in that massive grey space in between and around the edges. In one amazing flashback episode Mort goes to a camp for men who like to dress as women. Thrilled to be able to let his true self shine, he's also taken aback at the way the other men at the camp judge homosexuals insisting that dressing up like a woman is fine but wanting to have sex with another man crosses a line. The cast and crew is peppered with out people of all sexualities and that diversity is reflected on the screen where trans actors perform seamlessly next to stars like Tambor and Judith Light.

The only reason anyone ever had the opportunity to watch Transparent in the first place is because Amazon funded it, and the reason Amazon funded it was because the Internet giant needed a standout program to promote its streaming service which has perennially been an also-ran to Netflix. While plenty of Prime members were happy to have the added bonus of a video streaming service to go with their free shipping, there weren't many people signing up specifically for Amazon streaming because of the content. Despite a clever marketing campaign that let viewers pick from a bunch of pilots to decide which shows would ultimately get made, few people were clamoring for Alpha House or Betas.

Transparent put Amazon streaming on the map with a must-watch show. Think of it as Amazon's version of House of Cards. Suddenly, Amazon streaming seems like a viable content competitor and people are watching to see what the next buzzy show will be.

The Golden Globes brought some extra attention to Transparent and, by association, Amazon's streaming service. There's no question that many of the 19 million people watching the award show last night had never seen Transparent. Now, with the Globe wins, many will want to check it out.

That's a win for Amazon and a win for fans of quality programming. Television executives are a pretty predictable bunch. When something works, they want more of it. Hopefully what they'll realize about Transparent's success is that audiences are hungry for stories about lots of different kinds of people; that we can think outside of just cops and doctors when it comes to TV viewing. Hopefully they'll take more chances and we'll see more great shows like Transparent. The fact that tech companies like Amazon are trying to play in the original content sandbox is great news for TV fans who want to see the envelope continue to get pushed.